Sunday, May 03, 2015

Ridiculousness

We live in a very nice subdivision. We have lakes and a golf course, riding trails for our horses, and a Homeowners Association that insures that our lawns are well maintained, etc.

For the past 6 years, homeowners have been trying to get board approval to erect flag poles at each of our three entrances. One for the American flag and one for the Texas flag. Oddly, the board never approved or disapproved the plan, just kept delaying things.

Homeowners banded together and raised the money to buy and place the poles and to have the flags replaced every 6 months. The money did not have to come from our HOA dues and the maintenance was already taken care of, but without board approval the poles could not be placed on subdivision property. One enterprising man then approached the county and asked if the poles could be placed on the county easement just in front of our entrance landscaping. The county granted him approval and everything seemed to be moving forward.

And then….KAPOW! It all blew up horribly. The BOD got their feelings hurt that someone would go around them to get the flagpoles up and they dug in their feet. A nasty war of words ensued on a public forum that not only our homeowners could see but all of the surrounding community as well. It became very ugly, very fast. After the melee died down it was decided that a survey should be done to allow the homeowners to vote yes or no on the flags. No surprise, it came out overwhelmingly in support of the flags. Still, this did not satisfy the board so they ordered another survey which also came out overwhelmingly in support of the flags. Nastiness continued to be flung around, the board continued to drag their feet (they have had the survey results for a while and have not posted them yet). The board meetings have been full of more contentiousness and no answers.

Then, suddenly, the flags appeared at our entrances and there was a huge outpouring of pride and happiness from almost all of the homeowners. We have no idea who did it! At the last board meeting, two days after the flags went up, the board announced they were having them taken down and would then begin the process of coming up with a design and getting bids to place flagpoles, all paid for out of the HOA dues. Say what? They want to take down the flags and make us pay to have the whole thing re-done on our dime? The flag poles are on the approved county easement so I don't think legally they can touch the flags. They didn't pay for them, nor do they have jurisdiction over the property they are on. They announced the flags would be removed on Wed. and homeowners camped out around the flags to defend them. No one ever showed up to take them down.

Again the whole issue was hashed out in a public internet forum, but also in the news and on the radio here. We are being called the subdivision that tears down flags. Nice….